Help about installing NetBSD on a VAXstation 4000/90 (Cougar)

[Silas <silas%nocafe.net@localhost>]

Hello guys.

I recently acquired a VAXstation 4000/90 and the first thing I thought 
about it is that I wanted a NetBSD installation on it.  So I burned a 
ISO of port-vax (yes, it comes with a CD drive) and started reading the 
docs.

First, I found documentation very confusing.  The oficial INSTALL notes 
are not really clear about how to boot NetBSD install and there are 
other information scattered over the NetBSD website and wiki.  The 
INSTALL notes doesn't say whether or not it is possible to boot from the 
CD-ROM (although it says so about tapes and floppies), so I gave a try:

   >>> show dev
   VMS/VMB      ADDR    DEVTYPE      NUMBYTES   RM/FX   WP   DEVNAM  REV
   -------      ----    -------      --------   -----   --   ------  ---
   EZA0         08-00-2B-30-A7-AA
   DKA100       A/1/0   DISK         1.05GB      FX          RZZSL   4420
   DKA400       A/4/0   RODISK       ......      RM     WP   CD-ROM  8557
   ..HostID..   A/0     INITR

   >>> boot dka400


   -DKA400
   >> NetBSD/vax boot [1.11] <<
   >> Press any key to abort autoboot 4
   getdislabel: no disk label
   nfs_open: must mount first
   3101540+172988 [230120+220271]=0x38da94

(I transcribed information from the terminal, so there can be typos or 
other errors.)

I didn't expect it to boot, it starts but it just hangs after the output 
above and I have to press the machine Halt button to get back to the 
console again.

After doing this again and again with no success I gave up and tried 
booting from the network.  In another NetBSD machine, I followed 
instruction in https://www.netbsd.org/docs/network/netboot/mop.html and 
started the mopd daemon:

   # mopd -f -d -a

On the VAX machine, I just tried to boot it:

   >>> boot eza0


   -EZA0


   ?54 RETRY


   ?54 RETRY

Nothing happens and, on the other side (the machine running mopd) I just 
get:

   MOP RC 802.3 8:0:2b:30:a7:aa   > ab:0:0:2:0:0      len   45 code 07 SID
   MOP RC 8:0:2b:30:a7:aa   > ab:0:0:2:0:0      len   37 code 07 SID
   MOP DL 802.3 8:0:2b:30:a7:aa   > ab:0:0:1:0:0      len   47 code 08 RPR
   MOP RC 802.3 8:0:2b:30:a7:aa   > ab:0:0:2:0:0      len   45 code 07 SID
   MOP RC 8:0:2b:30:a7:aa   > ab:0:0:2:0:0      len   37 code 07 SID
   MOP DL 802.3 8:0:2b:30:a7:aa   > ab:0:0:1:0:0      len   47 code 08 RPR
   MOP RC 802.3 8:0:2b:30:a7:aa   > ab:0:0:2:0:0      len   45 code 07 SID
   MOP RC 8:0:2b:30:a7:aa   > ab:0:0:2:0:0      len   37 code 07 SID
   MOP DL 802.3 8:0:2b:30:a7:aa   > ab:0:0:1:0:0      len   47 code 08 RPR
   MOP RC 802.3 8:0:2b:30:a7:aa   > ab:0:0:2:0:0      len   45 code 07 SID
   MOP RC 8:0:2b:30:a7:aa   > ab:0:0:2:0:0      len   37 code 07 SID
   MOP DL 802.3 8:0:2b:30:a7:aa   > ab:0:0:1:0:0      len   47 code 08 RPR
   MOP RC 802.3 8:0:2b:30:a7:aa   > ab:0:0:2:0:0      len   45 code 07 SID
   MOP RC 8:0:2b:30:a7:aa   > ab:0:0:2:0:0      len   37 code 07 SID
   MOP DL 8:0:2b:30:a7:aa   > ab:0:0:1:0:0      len   39 code 08 RPR
   MOP RC 802.3 8:0:2b:30:a7:aa   > ab:0:0:2:0:0      len   45 code 07 SID
   MOP RC 8:0:2b:30:a7:aa   > ab:0:0:2:0:0      len   37 code 07 SID
   MOP DL 8:0:2b:30:a7:aa   > ab:0:0:1:0:0      len   39 code 08 RPR
   MOP RC 802.3 8:0:2b:30:a7:aa   > ab:0:0:2:0:0      len   45 code 07 SID
   MOP RC 8:0:2b:30:a7:aa   > ab:0:0:2:0:0      len   37 code 07 SID
   MOP DL 8:0:2b:30:a7:aa   > ab:0:0:1:0:0      len   39 code 08 RPR
   MOP RC 802.3 8:0:2b:30:a7:aa   > ab:0:0:2:0:0      len   45 code 07 SID
   MOP RC 8:0:2b:30:a7:aa   > ab:0:0:2:0:0      len   37 code 07 SID
   MOP DL 8:0:2b:30:a7:aa   > ab:0:0:1:0:0      len   39 code 08 RPR
   MOP RC 802.3 8:0:2b:30:a7:aa   > ab:0:0:2:0:0      len   45 code 07 SID
   MOP RC 8:0:2b:30:a7:aa   > ab:0:0:2:0:0      len   37 code 07 SID
   (messages repeat)

Both machines are connected via a network switch.

Can you help me?

I'm using NetBSD 7.1.2.  I didn't try an older version.

Thanks!

--
Silas